For an art form with as long and storied a history as beer, it can be fascinating to see how styles and approaches evolve as they ricochet back and forth across the globe and wend their way through the centuries. The story of the concepts used in crafting this edition of the Solitary Series starts us off in Belgium and ends up criss-crossing the Atlantic more times than a Spanish galleon.

We set out to brew something special, a strong ale of depth and character, but one that could be appreciated just as well sipping on the porch in the warm summer months, as curled up by the fire when the winter rains roll in. This requires finesse, balance, and a particular focus on keeping the body from getting too hefty. For inspiration, we looked to the Cistercian abbeys of Belgium, whose beer is renowned both for its complex flavor and for it’s light, effervescent body. They use simple sugars (often from caramelized Belgian candy syrup) to elevate both the alcohol content and the expression of their yeast without increasing the viscosity. This idea isn’t new—it has it’s own history stretching back past the industrial revolution to at least the ancient brewers of the Eastern Mediterranean—but these Belgian monks refined the practice in a way that made beer drinkers from all corners of the globe take notice.

We took their template as a starting point and began assembling our own beer around a different sugar source: molasses. Molasses is a byproduct of refining white sugar from sugar cane, which has its own fascinating journey from southeast Asia and Polynesia to India to the Caribbean. European colonists in the Americas used molasses as a cheap and flavorful source of sugar for cooking, brewing and distilling as it was plentiful from the booming Caribbean sugar industry. One of the most famous examples is a recipe from George Washington’s notes for a small beer brewed with molasses. With that precedent in mind, we set to finding other ingredients to complement the molasses’s sweet caramel/earthy/grassy flavor.

For hops we reached south to South Africa for a variety called Southern Passion. Another former English colony, South Africa is located in the narrow latitude band (like Germany and the UK in the north and Australia and New Zealand in the south) where the cycles of daylight are conducive to hop growing. The South African hop industry has blossomed in recent years, only to be gobbled up in its entirety by AB-InBev’s corporate juggernaut. The Southern Passion hops we pulled from our own vaults combine an earthy/woody element to complement the molasses, and a tropical fruit side that plays well with the fermentation character.

We left that fermentation in the hands of our German ale yeast. Though most common in clean German styles like Kölsch and altbier, it becomes more expressive in higher gravity beers, producing esters reminiscent of banana, pear, and grilled pineapple. We let the yeast run wild, chewing through all that molasses and pushing the ABV but just past 9.5%.

As these centuries of history come together in the glass, the result is both fascinating and delicious. The flavor leads with the hearty punch of molasses before rolling through through notes of orange, pear, raisin, and anise. It finishes surprisingly dry for such a strong beer, wiping your palate clean for another sip. However, wait just a second, and retronasal echoes will surface another layer of subtle banana and floral ethanol.

Solitary Series: August 2025 is available both on draft and in cans starting Friday 8/8/25. Grab a tulip at the Watts taproom (or wherever you can find it) and grab a 4-pk to take with you! Solitary Society members get a free 4-pk as well as a guided tasting at the release party!